Market geared for lower opening

Key indices are headed for negative start. Trading of Nifty 50 index futures on the Singapore stock exchange indicates that the Nifty could fall 19 points at the opening bell.

As per the minutes of the MPC meeting released yesterday, 21 August 2019, all six members of the monetary policy committee (MPC) voted unanimously on cutting the policy repo rate to deal with economic slowdown. The Reserve Bank of India announced a 35 basis points cut in the policy repo rate to 5.40% on 7 August 2019 in its third bi-monthly monetary policy review.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has done away with the broad-based eligibility criteria for foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) to simplify and expedite the registration process for these entities. In its board meeting yesterday, 21 August 2019, Sebi also cleared the proposal to make Central Banks of other countries eligible for FPI registration. They have been recategorised into two categories, instead of the current three categories.

The market regulator said that is currently not in favour of minimum public shareholding for listed companies being hiked to 35% from the current 25%.

Overseas, most Asian stocks were trading higher on Thursday after Wall Street got a boost from strong retail results, while bonds retreated as US policy makers sounded conflicted on whether to cut interest rates as sharply as markets were wagering.

Wall Street's main indexes rose on Wednesday as upbeat earnings from retailers pointed to strength in US consumer demand, and held gains after minutes from last month's Federal Reserve meeting showed policymakers had debated a more aggressive interest rate cut.

Back home,key equity benchmarks witnessed steep selling pressure Wednesday, dragged by metal and banks stocks. Concerns over a global recession and an escalating US-China trade war spoiled investors' sentiment. The Sensex fell 267.64 points or 0.72% to settle at 37,060.37. The Nifty 50 index fell 98.30 points or 0.89% to settle at 10,918.70.

The trading activity on that day showed that the foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 770.81 crore yesterday, 21 August 2019, as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges. Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 353.97 crore yesterday, 21 August 2019, as per provisional data.

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